God's Love & Hate

Intro

I was planning this morning to speak to you from 1 Timothy 2, but yesterday I learned of the awful attack that took place in Bondi Junction yesterday afternoon.

1 man with a knife

6 people murdered.

11 others injured.

In Australia.

In a regular shopping center.

With anger and sadness I started scrolling the news reports and watching the eyewitness footage, trying to understand who and why and how this could happen.

Shoppers were just going about their business on a Saturday afternoon and they were attacked.

Why?

Why did he do it?

Why did he attack those people and not others?

Why would you attack a baby?

Why did this happen?

Why did God let it happen?

As I reeled from the news, I wondering, “Do I need to pastorally address this at Church tomorrow? Maybe people won’t even be affected by this given all the evil that goes on so regularly. What could I say? What would God want us to remember?”

Uncertain about what to do, I opened up my Bible software to look at some passages.

And the most curious thing happened.

I’m not superstitious, but I believe wholeheartedly in the providence of God. And in that moment of uncertainty, sadness, anger, the software opened up right on the last passage I had flicked to when I was looking up some cross references the other day.

As I was thinking about what to say to you from God’s word, these words were presented before me by divine providence:

Psalm 11:4–7 (ESV)

The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

The Lord tests the righteous,

but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

--

Let him rain coals on the wicked;

fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

For the Lord is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face.

When I read that, I thought that a change of plans was in order to address this pastorally.

I believe this passage is what we need to hear this morning.

This will be a comfort to us.

The LORD speaks to his people, and we will hear and our spirits will be comforted and refreshed.

We will still see this evil for what it is.

We will still mourn the bloodshed.

We will still question,

But we will do it all under the knowledge that Our LORD reigns, He sees, he hates this wickedness, and that we will one day see his face.

Where are you at this morning? You may be unaffected by what happened yesterday. You may not have even heard about it till now. You may have poured out tears for the lives lost and senseless evil. You may have lost sleep over this tragedy. Wherever you’re at, we will all benefit from meditating on God’s truths this morning.

Let me bolster you with God’s word. Let me remind you of Rock on which you stand as the evil of the world swirls around us. Let me prepare you to face the uncertain future under the certainty of God’s promises.

YWHY is on the Throne

The first thing I wish to encourage you with is the fact that God is on the throne. Our passage is from Psalm 11, written thousands of years ago, and several hundred years before Jesus walked the earth.

This is a Psalm of David. David was the great King over God’s people, and he recognized the place of God over all.

In this psalm he envisions God in his holy temple, Reigning, watching, acting in justice.

Psalm 11:4 (ESV)

The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

This psalm come in the context of some great distress. We don’t know what, but it is clear that David was looking to God in his hour of need. He was looking to God for safety and consolation. He takes refuge in God in his hour of distress.

In David’s day there was a tabernacle. This a was basically an elaborate tent which was a mobile temple for worshiping God. It traveled with God’s people as they came up from Egypt into the promised land. It was quite nice, elaborately adorned and well made, but it was still just a tent. God’s presence would appear in the tent, but God was not fully there.

David understood that this earthly tent was in some respects a earthly miniature of the heavenly reality.

God doesn’t dwell in human buildings. They can’t contain him!

So while a manifestation of God’s glory dwelt among God’s people at various times and the tabernacle was where you could access God, that is not where God “was”. He didn’t “live” there like you and I live in our houses.

Instead, David lifts our eyes to see YHWY our God seated in the heavenly realm on his throne.

He invites us to see God in his temple, his true heavenly temple where he dwells in unapproachable light.

We can imagine our Lord enthroned over the earth in majesty and power. And he is not passive. He is actively watching and testing.

God is in control. He is the king over all the earth.

This was David’s comfort and it is ours now too. In time of crisis, in time of fear, run to the Lord who watches over all. Who is enthroned and has all power and authority.

This is where we can find hope, Not in the things of the earth...

not in the police or defense force,

Not in the medical system,

not in law and policies,

not in the strength of our own hands,

not in planning and preparation.

We look to our enthroned God who made us, and cares for us, and who rules over us. He is our defender and protector. All those other things are good, and may be used by God to help us, but at the end of the day, our trust and hope is not in them, but God!

And he watches. He is not watching like we might sit back at watch TV passively, no the idea here is that God watches proactively - he sees what happens and he acts.

He is testing, he is weighing, he is examining what we do. And this is a comfort, because it means that God is not sitting idly by but sooner or later his patience toward those acting evilly

This is a comfort to us. He is searching out who is doing right to reward them, and he is ready to punish those who do evil.

Which leads us to...

YHWY Hates wickedness

This is our second encouragement.

This is great news! Sometimes it doesn’t seem obvious that God hates wickedness because he’s not smiting the wicked with lightning bolts from the sky. But you can take this garuntee to the bank - God hates the wicked.

He does not take pleasure in their death, but he hates them.

The hatred of God doesn’t get much air time… I wonder why? Yes, God’s love is much more of a frequent topic in the Bible, but I’ve not heard much preaching about the many times God’s hatred comes up.

You see Love needs hate.

If I love my garden, I will necessarily be in opposition to things that threaten it, like pests, disease, bad weather etc.

Lets life that up to a higher love. If I love my family, I will necessarily be in opposition to things that threaten it, I will stand against threats from without and within. Dealing with sin in our house, providing for all our needs. Making sure we have a safe place to live, etc. I will detest that which seeks to destroy us.

Lets life that up to a higher love. If God loves, he will necessarily be in opposition to things that threaten the object of his love. If God loves his people, he will stand opposed to their enemies.

If God loves goodness and righteousness, he will hate evil and wickedness.

And that is confirmed here in this verse:

Psalm 11:5 ESV

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

As God watches and examines the world from his position of authority he opposes wicked.

No “love the sinner, hate the sin” here. God is proactively opposed to wickedness.

Psalm 11:6 ESV

Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

David’s plea for true justice!

David knows vengance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay.

YHWY Loves Righteousness

Psalm 11:7 ESV

For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

Righteousness given by one who mediates. Who steps in between.

Romans 3:21–22 (ESV)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

If you are right with God, you need not fear the rampaging madman, for you will see God face to face! You will receive eternal life!

Death has lost it’s sting!

Fear not man, fear the one who deals with your soul in death!

Why does YHWH let bad things happen?

We cannot plumb the eternal mysteries of God

We believe it is out of God’s desire to show love, grace & justice that he created a world knowing that we would fall.

Sin brought into the world (God is not the author of sin).

We wonder if when bad things happen to people, did they especially deserve it? Were they getting their just deserts?

Jesus teaches us:

Luke 13:1–5 (ESV)

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

This may seem callous to think about in the wake of a tragedy, but we must remember this is a precedent set by Jesus himself. This was his response!

Jesus teaches a couple things

When tragedy comes don’t assume it was because they were worse sinners than you.

You deserve the same fate.

The way to escape destruction is through repentance and faith.

We need the righteousness of Christ to see God face to face!

What should we do?

The innocent lives lost in Israel & Gaza,

The unsuspecting people of Ukraine who were driven from their homes,

The poor women who have been murdered across our state in recent months

Those poor people just shopping on a Saturday afternoon...

None of them are worse than us, and their seemingly untimely deaths remind us that the clock is ticking for all of us. We cannot trust that we will live to see tomorrow.

Repent and Believe

Trust God

Pray! For peace and security

Pray to the LORD!

For the victims and their families

For people who stepped up to defend others. There were men who stepped into harms way to defend their families and others.

For the police and in particular the Policewoman who killed the murderer.

For the medical response staff who swarmed on the shops to save lives one was intent on taking.

That we have relative peace and security. One of the reasons this is so astonishing is that it is so rare that we face such violence on our country.

For restraining evil by law and order, that such acts of evil are a relative rarity for us.